New release from Hilaritas Press - Prometheus Rising

You can now find an eBook version of Prometheus Rising (featuring a New Afterword by Richard Rasa), available on the Hilaritas Press website, here.   A print edition will follow.

Also on the website, you can find my memories of the Maybe Logic Academy.

Ten Years After - Welcome to The Dog Days

Just ten years ago today (by the Gregorian Calendar) the Maybe Logic Academy opened its doors, so that students from around the world could study with Robert Anton Wilson [aka RAW, or just Bob], and he wouldn't have to move about so much to do his workshops (as travelling had become harder for him, however much he enjoyed it).

When the doors opened a motley crew strolled or tumbled in: dopers, smokers and midnight tokers; people into music or magick or writing; pranksters, jokers and tricksters; rappers, jugglers, drummers and all sorts of other entities and critters.

The whole project might have worked differently these days (due to the acceleration of technology), with Skype and such, but the classes in 2004 operated through a series of forums.

Without face-to-face signals, communicating only in text, it seems easy for online study groups and forums to invite trolls and hecklers, and fall into negative thinking and other forms of stupidity.

Ten years on, the MLA remains in memory as the most intelligent, funny and interesting group of people I [aka Bogus] have mingled with online.  It seems sad (but perhaps inevitable) that it faded somewhat, especially after Bob died, and people drifted away.

Bob's only guideline for his study forums still seems valid for online communications:  

"In this area of cyberspace we only have one rule: If you can't achieve tolerance, at least attempt courtesy".

Many of us remain in touch, and some of us have since met up.  We still collaborate on projects. At the time we created 14 editions of an online magazine, and one hard copy - we also created our own currency, just to make Bob smile.

As part of the planned festival for RAW, surrounding the launch of the Cosmic Trigger play in Liverpool in November, some of us decided we might run a sample nine-week course, a taster, just a glimpse of the variety of things we feel lucky enough to have studied together with RAW.

We plan to maybe revive the MLA website, and put together a collaborative course, of which more news sooner or later. Hopefully, some of the old alumni may re-appear, and we can introduce some new faces to the whole area of study we managed to work through in those precious 30 months with Robert Anton Wilson.

A glimpse at the history of the MLA.

Be Seeing You!

Good to see the Maybe Logic Academy open again after a sabbatical, with forums, courses, etc.

Upcoming Events

July 23 - RAW Retrospective, tele-seminar, free as can be

July 24 - Initiation, online course with Lon Milo DuQuette

July 30 - Cosmic Trigger, tele-course with Erik Davis

Aug 13 - Schroedinger's Cat, online course with Eric Wagner

Aug 20 - RAW Politics, tele-seminar, free for enrolled students and MLA Initiate members

Seven Years On

I find it hard to believe that seven years have passed since I signed up to study the Illuminatus! trilogy directly with one of its authors - Robert Anton Wilson - through the Maybe Logic Academy.

Online study, remote learning, a forum - all new experiences to me, at the time.

It turned out to lead to many more study groups, and subjects, but that going deeply into one text felt like one of the most satisfying and focused of processes.

Very few books seem to warrant re-reading, but this trilogy belongs in that category, for me - like Catch-22 or Joyce's Ulysses.   I doubt I re-read them more than once a decade, as the world seems full of great new stuff - but they beckon me back at times, just as favourite movies can.

We did put up a wiki for the book (after seeing wikis for - say - Gravity's Rainbow) but it didn't really reach critical mass, and attracted a lot of spam, so turned into a high maintenance site with relatively little new input.   We also came across another and 'official' wiki for the trilogy (on Wikia), but that also seemed fairly slow moving.

With a re-read approaching, and Fuzzbuddy working on film scripts of the book(s) it seemed like a good time to review the online material, update the links, etc - so the wiki stuff has got imported into an Illuminatus! trilogy website linked to this blog for review.

It remains a work-in-progress, of course....

looking back over the forum posts, I found this exchange towards the end of the course:

9 Nov 2004    Bogus Magus:  

Little did I know, however, that I would end up treating it the way we are now - poring over the text like a Joycean scholar!

10 Nov 2004   RAW:  

 Dear Bogmag, 

Of course, I wanted at least some readers to 

pore over the text like Joyce scholars....that's
why I made it so Joycean

It has taken 29 years [plus the 5 years
lost in getting it published] but that
dream seems real at last, 

and I thank everybody

Hip-Hop and Shamanism course postponed

You may have noticed in the sidebar the announcement that PropAnon's Hip Hop course will start a little later than advertised.

The new start date looks like the first Monday in December (6th) but we will try to keep you up with the news.

Or (why not?) go and register at the MLA forum...






Meanwhile, Bobby's RAW Media course has moved onto blogging, so you may see some fresh input here from students this week!

It's not too late...

We had an announcement that the start of Fly's course has been postponed until the 27th Sept, so you didn't miss anything.

Access to enrollment in all the MLA courses - follow this link.

Note: It appears that you do have to create an MLA account first (if you don't already have one) by going to the forum.

MLA 2010 Fall Course Schedule

Enochian/Vision Magick • Lon Milo DuQuette • September 6 • $140

Program Or Be Programmed • Douglas Rushkoff • October 11 • $150

Secret History of the Church of the SubGenius • Rev. Ivan Stang • October 25 • $120

Magical Experiments • Philip H Farber • November 8 • $130

MLA 2010 Fall Alumni Seminars

Fall 2010 Alumni Series (all 3 courses) • All 3 courses • Fall 2010 • $100

Email To The Tribe • Fly Agaric 23 • September 27 • $pay-what-you-can - recommended price: $50

Hip-Hop & Shamanism • Prop Anon • October 17 • $50

Global Village • Bobby Campbell • November 5 • $pay-what-you-can - recommended price: $50

Scholar Access: Five MLA Courses • $500

The Global Village - A RAW Media Workshop

I'll be teaching a course over at the Maybe Logic Academy this fall...

An 8 week adventure in understanding media via theory & practice. This flabbergasting journey through the information age will explore & experiment w/ the state of the art in communication, culture, and commerce. If you want the eschaton immanentized right you have to D.I.Y.!


Class begins on November 5th and runs until the end of the year.  I'm going w/ a pay whatever you can set up.  So you can basically pitch a quarter at me and holler "Dance monkey! DANCE!"

Here's the current course outline, which gives you a general idea of what you're in for.

WEEK ONE - INFORMATION EXPLOSION
PRESENTATION: Jumping Jesus On A Pogo Stick
WORKSHOP: Tools of the Tribe -
(FTP, HTML, & Bit-torrent)

WEEK TWO - SPACESHIP EARTH
PRESENTATION: Here Comes Everybody
WORKSHOP: The Social Medium Is The Message -
(Weblogs, Wikis, & Feed Aggregation)

WEEK THREE - OPEN SOURCE CULTURE
PRESENTATION: The No "Mind"
WORKSHOP: Dada Is Not Dead -
(Cut Ups, Collage, & The Public Domain)

WEEK FOUR - REALITY LABYRINTHS
PRESENTATION:  Who Is The Great Magician That Makes The Grass Green?
WORKSHOP: Ineluctable Modality of the Visual -
(Images, Comix, & Animations)

WEEK FIVE - PROMETHEAN OVERTURES
PRESENTATION: The World Turned Upside Down
WORKSHOP: Radio Free Arcadia -
(Digital Audio, Podcasts, & Live Streams)

WEEK SIX - GLOBAL THEATER
PRESENTATION: Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
WORKSHOP: Movie Magick -
(Digital Video, Vidcasts, & Live Streams)

WEEK SEVEN - GUERRILLA ONTOLOGY
PRESENTATION: Dream@wake!
WORKSHOP: Operation Mindfuck -
(Trends, Memes, & Viral Media)

WEEK EIGHT - FIRING THE COSMIC TRIGGER
PRESENTATION: The Great Work Accomplished
WORKSHOP: D.I.Y. -
(Self Publishing for Fun & Profit)

  
"Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat."
 The lives and ideas of Robert Anton Wilson will be providing the backdrop to what is basically a modern media training montage.  

Anything I can do, you can do, hopefully even better, and I can do anything, everything, whatever!

ENROLL HERE!

 Fly & Prop Anon are also teaching classes this fall, along w/ the esteemed MLA veterans, check out the full MLA course details here!

Chapel Perilous online course

The concept of Chapel Perilous, a weird kind of limbo, period of transition, purgatory, etc turns up in RAW's work a lot, but (rather like the Grail) it proves illusive when you try to research it.

Eric Wagner (author of An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson) - if you don't like Amazon, see it at New Falcon Publications) - intends to run a course on the subject (if enough people show up) and posted this intriguing and tantalising summary on the Forum.


The Pentacle of Valor

Week One Cosmic Trigger Preface to the New Edition, Forewords, pg. 3 – 52

Conspiracy of the Week: Subterranean Worlds

Late Beethoven Pick: The Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106

Introductions; memorize the Crowley quote on page 18.

Does Apocalypse Now provide a useful model of Chapel Perilous? Dobbstown?Possible meanings of “Rising organ music.”
Agnosticism, Angels and Demons and the Illuminati, etc.

Week Two Cosmic Trigger pg. 52 – 114

Conspiracy of the Week: Tampa Bay: Chemical Warfare

Late Beethoven Pick: Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109

Korzybski, Joyce and the economy, etc.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Permanent Fifth Circuit, casting spells and Info-cinema, etc. Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki, zen and the eight circuit model, etc.

The Cup of Sympathy

Week Three Cosmic Trigger pg. 114 – 180

Conspiracy of the Week: The Terra Papers

Late Beethoven Pick: Piano Sonata in A Flat, Op. 110

John Lilly, dolphins and limits, etc. Dr. Leary and the 21st century, etc. Why Beethoven? Egypt, Crowley and the Grateful Dead, etc.

Week Four Cosmic Trigger pg. 181 – 247

Conspiracy of the Week: THELEMA, yup, welcome to Chapel Perilous

Late Beethoven Pick: The Ninth Symphony (of course)

Crowley’s relevance today. Sufis, fake Sufis, kabbalah and quantum mechanics, etc. Sirius, Mumbo Jumbo and Pynchon, etc. The tarot, The Game of Life, Jess Karlin and education, etc.

The Sword of Reason

Week Five I, Wabenzi pg. 1 – 113

Conspiracy of the Week: Kerry Thornley

Late Beethoven Pick: Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111

I hope you’ve gotten a copy of I, Wabenzi.

Have we any Wabenzi in the class? Not I, alas. Illumination, the lack thereof, 2012, etc. The Cosmic Schmuck Factor.

Week Six I, Wabenzi pg. 114 – 227

Conspiracy of the Week: The Three Tramps

Late Beethoven Pick: The Missa Solemnis

“How was your time on earth? What did you do there?How did it feel to you at the time?” Storytelling: Chapel Perilous as narrative process.

The Wand of Intuition

Week Seven I, Wabenzi pg. 228 – 351

Conspiracy of the Week: Tobacco Wars: Genetically Engineered Tobacco

Late Beethoven Pick: String Quartet Op. 130 and the Grosse Fugue

The heart and the third eye, etc. What do you think of Beshara, Bulent Rauf, Rafi Zabor, etc.? Bliss and ease, etc. Historicism, “a great unstoppable wave,” the 60’s, the present and the future, etc.

Week Eight I, Wabenzi pg. 352 - 472

Conspiracy of the Week: Trilateral Commission

Late Beethoven Pick: The Ninth Symphony

The role of the teacher at Beshara or Maybe Logic. Abū abd-Allah Muhammad ibn-Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-`Arabi al-Hatimi al-TTaa'i (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي). One reality versus many. Chapel Perilous, the musical.

Course texts:

Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati
-- Robert Anton Wilson

I, Wabenzi
-- Rafi Zabor

8 week course
May 18 - July 12 Enrol here

Further details of this (and other) MLA courses (past and present)

DVD of Antero Alli on the 8 Circuit Brain

In spite of the eclectic interests of this blog, and its authors, we still revolve around some fundamental models, themes and ideas. The 8-Circuit Model that Tim Leary and Robert Anton Wilson evolved - also features in a lot of Antero Alli's work, extended by him in Angel Tech (the book, and the MLA courses).

You can now buy a DVD of Antero delivering a lecture on this material. No review yet (as we haven't seen it) but you might like a link to the page which describes it in more detail, offers viewable excerpts, and has links to further free material on the subject.


You can also purchase the DVD from the same link.


Antero's highly enlightening 8 week interactive online course on Angel Tech will also run again Mar 16 - May 10 2009.

Read the Prospectus here.

See details for this and other courses on the official MLA site.

Or see the general schedule in the public part of the forum.
Note: you can click on the '8 Circuits' Label below to see all previous posts on this subject.

endlessly evolving

It feels great to have this group blog working again as a real conversation. Whether it makes quite as much sense to visitors, I have no idea.

As a balance to this endlessly growing linear blog (dense with content) I made a start on a simple OM website - slightly more static and permanent - as a way to extract and compress some of what this blog contains (rather like the Imperfect Index - which hasn't seen an update for a while now.) I used Google Page Creator, just as an experiment.

As it happens, Page Creator itself seemed like a beta test, and now that Google intend to migrate all PageCreator sites into their new Google Sites realm (which uses JotSpot technology) they have caused a ruckus among people who have got attached to Page Creator, or set up businesses using it, and didn't realise that Google had 'merely used them as beta testers' (guinea pigs).

Phew, although I have played with GooglePages a bit, I didn't come to rest my weight on it, as it remained listed in their Labs section (i.e. playground and test area). Still, now that the OM website has started to appear in Google listings when you search for Only Maybe, it does seem a shame if it migrates to a new URL. We'll see in the coming months.

Anyway - given that several of us like the idea of shared and collaborative wikis and webpages (see links on right, to Illuminatus Wiki, and to The Tale of The Tribe) I'll keep an eye on it. We might like the idea of a members only area, as well as a public face like this one.

As the Academy continues to run online courses (Bless 'em) but the new general forum (we've had 4 previous ones) has received a lot of criticism (in terms of usability, display, functionality, etc) - sombunall of us might like easier ways to stay in touch.

Having said that, if I had time and money I would take Erik's class on RAW [RAW Secrets Sept 8 - Oct 19 Eric Wagner]. Full course outline here.

In his writings, Bob Wilson pointed to Prometheus Rising over and over again as a practical handbook for self-directed change of the mind/body system. This class will emphasize doing as many of the exercises from this book as possible during a six week period as well as closely reading the text. Bob designed the exercises to weaken the existing imprints and to help the experimenter become a self-metaprogrammer, reimprinting the nervous system as each individual sees fit. In addition this class will explore alternatives to the eight circuit/system/dimension model. Please join Eric Wagner on this six week mission, to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, both within and without ourselves, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

I always recommend workshops with Antero Alli, who will run an Astrologik class [Astrologik Sept 22 - Nov 2 Antero Alli ].

For the full schedule you need to go to the MLA forum, or here (to register)., or read through the course details here. Note: I hope the interface for the classes works more smoothly than the general forum. I'd welcome any feedback from recent students, as I haven't done a course for a while, and have nostalgia for the fun we had when everything worked smoothly.

Ah, the good old days!

NEWS FLASH! The limited edition hard copy of Maybe Quarterly does seem imminent now, so if you want a copy contact your favourite MLA graduate, or watch this space. Or maybe take a long shot on finding one on a park bench near you - through serendipity and synchronicity, or magick (if that's yer thing). I like the idea of putting some copies on Book Crossing, so we can track their adventures.

Coming Soon...

We have run this blog for nearly 3 years - since 18th June 2005 - during which time any original Blogger sites got migrated to Google servers (who stayed true to their word not to mess with it, but just offer Blogger more investment and resources, when they bought them in 2003).

We still don't know exactly how many people visit regularly, or just trip over us, but you may see some changes very soon. We may migrate.

(Hello in over 800 languages)

Next week, the Maybe Logic Academy (approaching 4 years of age) will migrate yet again (from version 4.0 to version 5.0), into an integrated Moodle setup.

Old timers may remember the various incarnations of the various forums and online courses, each with its own quirks, and anyone who hasn't visited the current campus (some areas of version 4.0 became open to visitors without registering) might want to take a peek now, before the changes due el lunes próximo.

Native English speakers remain ignorant of, or resistant to, other languages, as you can see in this UK drive to get students to even attempt a second language! (BBC story).

You can always have fun with a BabelFish.

Julie Zhu's artwork from Silverchips online magazine at Montgomery Blair High School (used without permission)

Upcoming courses

I just noticed a broken link in the column on the right, to the general Academy Info. My apologies to anyone who tried it recently.

MLA Course Information

An upcoming course with R.U.Sirius looks as though it could prove mischievous fun! 6 week course February 11 - March 23

If you go register on the general forum you will see some people gathering before the event, to perhaps get up to a little mischief of their own very soon...look for the thread in MLA Relations...

Pranks and Pranksters, Tricksters & Tricks -- the brilliant ones open up a space in the world for magic(k), ambiguity, and novelty. They encourage us to Question Authority and better still, they cause us to Question Reality.

In this course, we will discuss the history of pranks and pranksterism in the contemporary world. We will examine mythical and world historic tricksters like Coyote, Bugs Bunny, Crowley, Puck, Heyoka, Papa Legba, Lucifer, and more. And we'll explore and discuss the role pranksters and tricksters play in cultures. I will also discuss some of my own pranks and tricks and legendary pranksters Mark Hosler of Negativland and Joey Skaggs will be dropping in on the course to answer questions.

Finally, we will plan pranks, make pranks, and maybe even leave the course with a dedicated prankster cabal. No fooling.

Course texts: (links to Amazon.com - also available elsewhere)

Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art by Lewis Hyde
Pranks 2 by V. Vale

Things To Come

A Fairy Tale for Paranoids

The decision to start a Wiki for discussion of Illuminatus! seems popular with the gang, so we will probably start on that in the new year (Christian Calendar).

I have various bits and pieces that I found useful when doing the Illuminatus! course with RAW that I would simply like to put in one easily accessible place.

First of all, a list of characters, which had been compiled by Toff Philippo and shows just how many people swirl around in the books – and helps piece together who they all are (like a Russian novel, it seems easy to lose track). I tidied up the formatting, and Quackenbush posted it on the excellent RAWilsonFans website.


I hope we can supplement this list a bit with things like the origins of character’s names (someone called Mocenigo, for instance, betrayed Giordano Bruno to the Inquisition).

I also had a secret weapon during the course (for quick research of non-linear time plots) in that I found a (probably illegal) PDF download on a Russian site, in praise of the KLF. I actually found a couple of other places you could download or read online copies, but kept quite quiet about it for a while (not feeling secure about how an author might feel about PDF versions of a book).

Anyway – they exist, and you can find them if you have any skill at Googling at all…and who reads whole books on screen? Not many people, yet. As a research tool to supplement reading the paperback, it seems essential, however. Rather than point to my various secret sites, perhaps I should direct you to RAWilson Fans, again, as it would seem best if we all refer to the same copy (consistency of page numbering, etc). Here’s the ebooks page…whatever you do, don’t go to the html copy on that Buddhist hustler page… (heh)

NB: I do wish they would publish the thing in 3 volumes again, like my original set which I gave away. So much easier to carry around than the fat Omnibus edition. I’d also like to see the plot summaries (story so far) that appeared at the beginning of volumes two and three.

Somewhere in my boxes I have the programme for the stage show, which I should dig out…sadly, a few of the actors have left the planetary stage…and at least one is in jail (George Dorn).

While considering this project, I discovered that 3 issues of a comicbook version had come out. I have traced copies of the first two, but not the third (as yet).

Still, the artist, Mark P.Steele (ICARUS!) has a MySpace place where you can look at some of the art work.

A Wicked Wiki in the future

The Maybe Logic Academy ran for three years with Robert Anton Wilson (the founder) at the helm (what’s with all these shipping metaphors that keep slipping into this blog?) I guess I like the Great Pirates model, with a cybernaut steering the vessel. (and who the hell 'is' Flemming Funch?)

Since RAW left the planet, oh the best part of a year ago, the Academy continues to function OK. The current incarnation of the forum seems a bit clunky, to me, compared with some of the previous ones we had (sorry, Admin!) but it is also more complicated (which could explain that). Rather than a separate forum for each course, the campus now includes meeting rooms, blogs, general and course forums, etc. Oh, and guests and visitors also have access, rather than just an elite of paying students, which has led to spam attacks and other such nonsense. Still, generally, it’s great to have new minds joining us.

Work & Play together

The long-term students (lifers) still work together, occasionally meet up, encourage each other, work collaboratively and so on. You might see this blog as the kind of thing that emerges from such teamwork with friends who have never met in the body.

Anyway. We have been learning Wiki by doing some collaborative fiction writing using the Wiki set up – and now I have a rough idea how it works, I would like to start working on a Wiki based around Illuminatus!

Although that book dates back to the early 1970s, it doesn’t seem to date. A bit like Bill Hicks’ routines.

Working in the early 90s he was talking about the folly of a President called George Bush, and the stupidity of a war in Iraq. He dies, finds some posthumous fame, and people play the routines back 15 years later and, guess what, the references to George Bush and Iraq sound topical. Quite eerie, really.

I find The Illuminatus Trilogy doesn’t seem to date, either.

• Firstly, it has a plot that sprawls all over spacetime, so it doesn’t appear stuck in the 70s.


• Secondly, things didn’t change much, although people have become far more aware and knowing about conspiracies, Government corruption, magick, alternative history, drugs, and many of the other themes it contains (ecology, sexism, sizeism, etc.)


• Thirdly, it has some real premonition hits (like blowing a hole in the Pentagon which lets out the demon – something that might have seemed improbable/impossible before 9:11)


• Fourthly, it is far more readable than (say) Foucault’s Pendulum, which covers much of the same material, and yet far less trivial than (say) The Da Vinci Code.


• Fifthly, the authors deliberately layered up references and teasers so that it deserves (and rewards) re-reading.

My model for a Wiki arises from similar spaces I have found online like the one for Gravity’s Rainbow, or concordances for Finnegans Wake and Ulysses. Illuminatus seems far more accessible (if at times confusing to straight minds) than any of those.

We had a lot of fun teasing out some of the material when we did a twelve week course with RAW about just that one book. I really enjoyed the chance to talk with an author about a one of my favourite books, and with people who felt the same enthusiasm as I did. We can't have the input of either him or Bob Shea any more, sadly, but the book remains to work with.

Anyway – no doubt, as busy people you can’t spend all day reading a blog. If you like the idea, have any knowledge of the legal implications for copyright, etc, any experience in setting up or contributing to a literary Wiki, or any other comments, please do use the Comments function below.

Thank-you for your attention.

Just a hint of a breeze

It does sound as though we might get Issue #13 of the Maybe Quarterly pumped up one more time!

A glimpse at Bobby's student notes, from Douglas Rushkoff's Technologies of Persuasion course which Bobby may well (knowing him) work up into a finished piece for MQ, might give you a glimpse of the kind of thing to expect from studying around here, with all us school-haters (oh, perhaps I shouldn't generalize from my own experience of indoctrination by The State).

Me, personally, I just finished writing a 50,000 word novel called Foolproof, on the NaNoWriMo challenge, so I apologise for slightly neglecting this blog. I have no idea how pleased I may feel with it, as I didn't re-read, just kept going, like running a marathon.

I hope to offer a shorter piece (I know you're all busy people) for MQ, and even talk the magnificent Bobby into giving you a few pictures to look at, while you read.

More soon. Gotta go celebrate my marathon...

Ilustration is Bobby's Fool, from the so far incomplete RAW Tarot project...








If you want to see what cards we have so far you could:

• go to the Imperfect Index of our stuff (yeah, it has black holes where information should 'be') and scroll down to RAW Tarot.
• Search the whole blog for "Tarot" with the Search at top left of screen
• Use the Tarot Label at the bottom of the post, to look for related posts

Doldrums

Ah, the wind went out of our sails, and here we find ourselves drifting.

For any regular readers (if such exist) this blog hasn't become totally abandoned, like the Mary Celeste (or the Marie Celeste, if you prefer Conan Doyle's fictional version), but our speed has definitely reduced quite considerably.

I have taken on the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing a 50,000 word book in the month of November, which steals a lot of my writing time, and Bobby has been producing an updated version of his Okey-Dokey sequence, which will finally appear in five volumes.

We haven't had any offers from new contributors to liven this whole thing up, and with a few courses running even the general forum is quite sluggish right now, with people's attention on their course work.

But don't give up on us.

We still plan a new Maybe Quarterly #13, due out on the Winter Solstice.

Be Seeing You!

One Thing After Another

9 Haha 135 de l'Ere Pataphysique
Boomtime, 68th of Bureaucracy, YOLD 3173
I realised the other day (when a new MLA student asked who or what did RAW refer to) that we have a new world ahead of us. Our founder, teacher, friend and collaborator moved on, and left us the Academy as one of his legacies (along with some 35 books). It now has a life of its own.

This blog started as a student ezine, and has slowly ended up more-or-less written by me (for the time being). As I have my own particular quirks, it no longer represents a real cross-section of the student body's interests, merely my take on everything. I try to remain focused on MLA stuff (I have other blogs for other interests) but for a better sample you might want to visit the open part of the campus(in spite of a recent invasion of pseudo-visitors - a horrible viral marketing ploy by Ask.com. Oh, don't ask! No really. Don't, it only encourages them.)

Still, you could always search the archives through the link on the right, or the Index, if so inclined.

Time On Your Hands

I don't know how the future of Blogger works out, but I guess this will remain as some sort of record of the times. I continue to add links (that may well reflect my own obsessions) because I find it useful (and I hope you may, too) to have one reference point to keep some favourite places to wander and wonder, when you have some time on your hands.

The weird calendars (by the way) come from Bob's interest in such human constructs and grids. And when I say 'Bob' (around here) I refer to Robert Anton Wilson (RAW) of course. Elsewhere, I might mean Dylan, or Bob Dobbs...

"God spelled backwards is Dog, but Bob spelled backwards is still Bob".

I wish I had a palindromic name!

That's as maybe...

A new set of courses has started, and a whole new bunch of people arrived - mingling in the general forum, but coming for Erik Davis's course on The Crazy Wisdom of Philip K Dick (why oh why didn't I join that one!) and Douglas Rushkoff's course - TECHNOLOGIES OF PERSUASION: From Propaganda to Paranoia - which started today. (Well, OK, yesterday by 5 minutes in the UK time zone, but San Francisco has 5 p.m, and New York 8 p.m. on October 1st, so I feel partly correct!) You can find an interview with Rushkoff in the Info-Cache blog here (or see link in the right hand column).

It feels terrific to have an infusion of fresh minds arriving through different channels, and the 'old crew' seem revitalized themselves, producing a really exciting new edition of the Quarterly.

Go to DeepLeaf Productions (permanent link on the right) for details of future courses, like Antero Alli's much anticipated Astrologik: Astrology Without Tears, starting 29 October.

Starhawk and Phil Farber have courses scheduled for November...so on we go...

Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing - RU Sirius podcast

Just added a link to Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing [right of the screen]. He has lots of stuff that might interest Maybe people...Sounds like family.

e.g: RU Sirius Podcast -- Tribute To The Still-Very-Much Alive Writer Philosopher Prankster Robert Anton Wilson

RU Sirius Radio Show #78: Robert Anton Wilson Lives!
[first section on Borat - UK Prankster aka Ali G. The RAW section starts at about 17:23]

We talk about the great writer/philosopher/prankster Robert Anton Wilson with Lance Bauscher, director of the documentary “Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson” and the force behind the “Maybe Logic Academy.” And we talk to Eric Wagner, author of “An Insider’s Guide to Robert Anton Wilson.” And best of all, Bauscher brought in some reading/performances from the upcoming audio book version of The Illuminatus Trilogy!, which will be released by his Deepleaf Production company.
Hear Ken Campbell reading the audio book! Yeh! He put the stage show of Illuminatus! on in London

You can see Ken with RAW here - and what about this letter from Ken Campbell!